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How the Runner's World Challenge Was Born

Rather than just champion the principles of long-distance training from the pages of our magazine, the Runner's World staff hit the road and tested them for ourselves.

Jun 12, 2012

Anyone can run a marathon. Oprah did it. Senators, presidents, and movie starsdo it all the time. The hit show The Biggest Loser even culminated in a marathonfor the contestants who have lost the most weight–as if to make the point that anyone, can become an athlete with enough grit and determination.

Here at Runner's World, we pride ourselves on being the experts when it comes to preparing for marathons. After all, we've been telling people how for more than 40 years.

In 2009, rather than just champion the time-tested principles of long-distance running from the pages of our magazine, we decided to hit the road and test them for ourselves. A dozen Runner's World editors trained for a marathon together, and we invited readers tojoin us.

Bart Yasso, the man hailed as the "Mayor of Running," developed a 16-week program for the Runner's World editors. We then offered the plan to our readers, along with all of the tools they'd need to get from the starting line to the finish. We created an online community on RunnersWorld.com, and we put ourselves on call 24/7 to answer everyone's questions about training, nutrition, motivation, and injury prevention.

Since then, more than 3,500 people have taken Runner's World Challenge while preparing for marathons and half-marathons (which we later added to the program) all over the world. More than 1,600 of them have raced alongside us at marathons in Richmond, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Toronto, Big Sur, and Philadelphia. They have been first-timers and 2:40 hopefuls; college kids and grandparents. Some have been shooting for their fastest times ever. Some were celebrating milestone birthdays or anniversaries. Others had reached get-up-or-give- up moments, and the Challenge was the call to action they needed to start turning their lives around. A few were in the throes of chemotherapy, trying to survive the hardest times of their lives.

In Runner's World's online community, the Challengers formed a global running club, bonded by the breakthroughs and bonks they shared during hundreds of days of training.

"The online community became my family and my cheerleading section," says Nancy Kissak, 60, an accountant from Merced, California. "I just needed someone to tell me that I could do this. And Runner's World provided that."

And the Challengers accomplished way more than they'd imagined or that we could have promised. Jonathan Steckel finished his first marathon in 2:57. After struggling to break 5:30 for six marathons, Christopher Sanford of Newport News, Virginia, nabbed a 4:51 finish, and 17 months later he went on to run a 4:08 marathon. Dan Kovacevic, a 41-year-old home builder from Cleveland, Ohio, shed 80 pounds from his 6-foot frame, became a 3:57 marathoner, and grew into a person that others turn to for inspiration and advice.

"I went from feeling indolent," he says, "to feeling like an athlete."

Ultimately, the Challengers found that the most enduring benefits of the marathon amounted to way more than anything that could be measured on a clock at the finish line.

"Getting through the training and completing the race has given me incredible confidence that I never had before," says Stephanie Russell, 28, of Oakton, Virginia. "And it has made me think that maybe this whole time I have been a lot stronger than I ever realized."

The Big Book of Marathons and Half-Marathons allows readers a peek into the Runner's World Challenge experience. It has all the tools a person needs to run a first or fastest marathon or half-marathon.

It includes:

6 of the marathon and half-marathon training plans that the Runner'sWorld Challengers used to achieve theirrace-day goals

Inspiring stories from real runners who took the Runner's World challenge and lost hundreds of pounds, overcame chronic disease, and logged stunning PRs and first finishes.

Plus, some of the most valuable (and, okay, embarrassing) lessons that the Runner's World editors learned during their training.

And what's more, you'll find the moving stories of the real runners lost hundreds of pounds, overcame huge obstacles, and recorded their first and fastest races while taking the challenge.

They taught us all here at Runner's World what it really takes to go the distance. If you have ever thought that you are too old, too busy, or too out of shape to run a marathon or half-marathon, these people will convince you otherwise.

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